Rtp Crisps

Factory with adjoining boundary wall and gateway on Allison Street, Digbeth. Built in 1872 for Corder & Turley, manufacturers of umbrella ribs. The building was adapted in 1923 as a clothing factory for Fawcett Bros., and again in 1975 as a food processing factory for RTP crisps. Alterations and additions were made in 1896 by Cross Franklin and in 1923 by Ewan Harper Bros. & Co.

The factory comprises earlier ranges arranged in an L-plan fronting Allison Street and Well Lane, with 20th-century ranges to the rear parallel to Allison Street, linked to the front range and enclosing a courtyard.

The 1872 range is in Gothic Revival style, constructed in red brick with terracotta dressings, some painted, and Welsh slate roofs. It features several side wall and ridge stacks, mostly capped, with a plinth, intermediate cornices and impost bands to upper floors, and dentillated eaves. The building rises to three storeys with a grid of 16 by 9 windows.

The windows are mainly original cast-iron glazing bar casements with serrated segmental pointed heads to the ground floor and serrated pointed arches above. The main frontage to Allison Street has an approximately central feature of 2 windows with enrichment on the upper floors, beneath a heavily ornamented coped gable incorporating a cusped round window containing patterned stained glass. The ground and second floors have standard windows; the first floor has round arched windows flanked by enriched panelled pilasters and swags.

To the left of the ground floor is a segmental pointed cart opening with a pair of doors, followed by 5 windows (one enlarged), then a pointed arched doorway and fanlight beneath a gable. Beyond are 2 further windows (one wider) and a small square-headed window at the corner. To the right are 4 windows, then a small flat-headed window, then a doorway and a reglazed window. Above, on each floor, the left section has 8 windows (those to the first floor reglazed), and the right section has 6 windows arranged 4 to 2.

The left corner features on the first floor a canted oriel window, rebuilt in plastic in the late 20th century on an original moulded masonry bracket. The left return to Well Lane has similar regular fenestration with reglazed windows to the first floor.

The rear elevation maintains mainly original regular fenestration with segmental headed openings and several segmental pointed openings to the ground floor. To the left is a late 19th-century addition of two storeys with 8 windows. The ground floor has segmental headed openings with cast iron glazing bar casements, while above are 7 steel framed casements from the 20th century.

The boundary wall and entrance gateway to the right of the main frontage are both 20th-century additions; the wall is coped brick with a roller shutter door, and the entrance has a flat gable.

The 20th-century ranges are constructed in red brick with concrete lintels and coated slate roofs. They feature large steel framed casements with glazing bars, divided by brick pilasters, rising three storeys with a grid of 7 by 3 windows. The courtyard frontages have regular fenestration, with ground floor windows obscured. The north range, fronting a loading bay, has 5 by 2 windows with roller-shutter doors to the ground floor, divided by concrete pilasters.

Internally, the 1872 range has wooden floors carried on lengthwise beams and round cast iron columns, with a single purlin roof. The trusses feature diagonal struts and a vertical tie rod held in a cast iron shoe at the ridge. The 20th-century ranges have clear floor spans and angle-iron roof trusses.